Connecticut Product Liability Lawyer

When you purchase a product, whether it is as simple as a toaster or as complex as an automobile, you assume that it is safe to use for its intended purpose. You typically trust whomever you purchased it from, and you trust the manufacturer to provide you with a product that will not harm you, your family, or anyone else. Too many times, however, that trust is misplaced, as many people are injured and killed by dangerous and defective products each day. The Connecticut product liability lawyers at Berkowitz and Hanna LLC help those injured by defective products by protecting their legal rights and obtaining fair compensation for their injuries. Contact a skilled injury attorney to learn more.

Commonly Defective Products

Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers have a responsibility to protect consumers from dangerous products. If something goes wrong with a product and someone is injured, they could be held liable for any damages caused. Virtually any product could potentially be harmful if it is not designed, manufactured, or marketed correctly, although there are a handful of products that are more susceptible to defects, such as:

• Prescription and non-prescription drugs
• Medical devices, such as hip implants and cryotherapy devices
• Motor vehicle parts, including faulty tires and brakes
• Children’s toys, including those with dangerous levels of lead or other toxins
• Safety equipment, such as fire alarms and smoke detectors

An unsafe product could result in serious injuries (including brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, blindness, disfigurement, chronic pain, permanent disability) or even death. Speak with a highly skilled and proven Connecticut product liability attorney to discuss your case.

Defective Products and the Law

Product liability is the term for the area of law that concerns the safety of products. Any party involved in putting a dangerous product into the marketplace can be held liable, including the manufacturer, parts supplier, distributor, and retailer. Product liability claims can be based on three different legal theories. The first is negligence, which is when the charged party failed to comply with the applicable standard of care; that is, they violated their duty to the plaintiff to provide a safe product. Second, strict liability is the charge when the party puts into the marketplace a dangerous, defective product that harmed someone who used it for its intended purpose. Lastly, breach of warranty, which is when the product had a warranty, written or unwritten, that it was safe to use for its intended purpose; however, the product failed, and the warranty was broken.

Types of Defects

There are three aspects of production that can lead to a product being defective: the design, manufacturing, or marketing, A design defect is relatively straightforward – this is when the defect is inherent in the design of the product, so regardless of how well it is manufactured or marketed, the product is defective from the very beginning. A manufacturing defect is when a product was manufactured or constructed improperly, causing it to become dangerous. Therefore, even if the product was safe “on paper,” an error occurred in the actual making of the product, leading to the defect. Finally, a marketing defect deals with errors in the instructions, labeling, and packaging of a product. For example, if a product’s packaging fails to warn the consumer about certain dangers associated with the product, it is considered a marketing defect. The product may have been designed for one use, for which it was safe, but marketed for a different use that made it dangerous.

Proving Product Liability

For a plaintiff to prove that a defendant is guilty – and therefore must pay compensation to an injured party under the Connecticut Product Liability Act – he or she must establish the following:

• The defendant is a “product seller” (a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, or retailer that sells the product, whether for use by the buyer or for resale to another).
• The product is defective in the way claimed by the plaintiff.
• The defect existed when it left the defendant’s control.
• The product was expected to reach the plaintiff without a substantial change in condition.
• The defect made the product unreasonably dangerous because at the time of sale it was defective beyond what the ordinary consumer would expect.
• The product actually reached the user without a substantial change in the condition concerning the defect.
• The defect was the proximate, or legal cause of the injury or damage to the plaintiff.
• Physical, psychological, and/or financial harm resulted from the injury.

As highly experienced Connecticut product liability attorneys, we are well-versed in the nuances of these types of cases.

Contact Us to Discuss Your Product Liability Case

Under Connecticut law, just because a person was injured while using a product does not necessarily mean it was legally defective. This is a highly technical area of law that relies heavily on expert testimony to discover defects in a product and explain those issues to a jury. As a result, if you or a loved one have been injured by an unsafe product, you need legal representation.  At Berkowitz Hanna, we have successfully helped many clients in the past with these complicated cases. If you or a family member have been injured by a defective product and believe you may have a legal claim, contact a Connecticut product liability lawyer at our firm today.